


Six Doors

by MagpieMorality



Series: Writepie Prompt Fills [8]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Bonding, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Canon, can be read as platonic or pre-relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-19
Updated: 2020-02-19
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:42:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22800421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagpieMorality/pseuds/MagpieMorality
Summary: Remus is having trouble fitting in.
Relationships: Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders, Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders/Morality | Patton Sanders
Series: Writepie Prompt Fills [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1638634
Comments: 18
Kudos: 93





	Six Doors

**Author's Note:**

> From this prompt:
> 
> "Thomas finally accepted that the dark sides are part of him and that they deserve to be treated well like the core. That means Deceit and Remus now have brand new bedrooms! It's a good thing but Remus just can't stop feeling out of place, his room is a mess compared to any other side. Patton wants him to feel welcome, so he decided to help him decorate. Well, it's a little harder than he thought."

Six doors lined the corridor. Six near-identical doors, bar the name tags that were stuck to each one, declaring the owner within. Three were heavily decorated and well-worn; one was as expressive in it’s plainness and clearly just as old as the previous three; and the final two were shiny and new. 

Outside one of these two there was a man, his gloved hands carefully pressing a piece of paper onto the brightly painted wood so the blu-tack stuck firmly and held. He’d covered half of the name tag with a picture of a smiling snake so only the first two letters were visible, and stepped back to admire his handiwork. Yes, that would do nicely. 

“What are you up to?” The question was followed swiftly by the individual who’d asked, as Remus bowled up the stairs and over to De’s side. Remus never just walked anywhere, ever. He seemed to be always trying to catch up with his own thoughts, or racing to some imagined deadline. 

De smiled at him and presented the newly added image to Remus, who ooh’ed appropriately, muttering facts about snakes sotto voce without pausing for breath. De was, luckily, used to it by now, and just stood back to take in the sight of his door, his yellow looking happy and bright next to the baby blue of Patton’s. On the opposite side of the corridor Remus’s own room was now situated. He’d shyly chosen the green himself when Thomas had asked (and god how freakin’ _cool_ was it to be _asked_?!) so it was almost a bottle green- a deep-sea green- rather than the Disney-villain lime of his sash. That colour was for videos, he admitted (to Thomas and only to Thomas) and it didn’t match the hallway as well as the nice green he’d picked did. 

Remus muttered a goodbye, leaving De to appreciate his new place in the mindscape some more and slipping away into his bedroom. 

And… there was the problem, really. De had slotted in just like that. His door didn’t creak when you opened it because it was well-oiled with frequent visitors. His room was tidy and decorated and cool to hang out in, and he’d unpacked all his things as soon as they’d moved, with a little help from Virgil and, surprisingly, Logan. 

Remus hadn’t unpacked yet. 

Well he _had_ , you know? But his unpacking was sort of just… strewing his things over the floor, and _yeah_ , that was his _aesthetic_ , but he also just hadn’t quite been able to bring himself to make his room yet. He had grand visions of intricate structures and mad decor, but… he was nervous. 

What if they had to move again?

What if no one liked it?

What if (and this was the least scary but the loudest thought of all) his creativity didn’t work right up here because he was meant to be down **there** forever because he was _literally made to be down **there** forever and_-

Well it didn’t feel right to do it just yet, basically. His things stayed on the floor and he avoided staying in his room and no one suspected a thing because no one visited Remus’s room. Who could weather the constant barrage of unfiltered thought it threw at them? 

Who indeed? 

* * *

Nearly a month after the dar- the _other_ sides had moved in, Patton was starting to notice a pattern. A _pattorn_ , if you will. Every morning when he got up bright and early to start breakfast and put the coffee on for the night owl sides among them; Remus would bound out of his room as soon as he walked past and join him downstairs, chattering away but sometimes lending a hand. And every evening when Patton did his trip down to chivvy the rest of the sides up to bed, Remus would help him get everyone else to bed and then slip away to his room, the door closing before Patton could wish him a goodnight from the doorway as was his custom. 

It was highly suspicious, and even if he hadn’t sensed the lingering _off_ ness around Remus all the time Patton would have decided action needed to be taken. After all; Remus gave such excellent hugs! And he was such a good dough kneader! He more than deserved reward in kind. 

So one afternoon when Remus was embroiled in a fierce mariokart competition with Roman and Virgil, Patton donned his Watson costume and set off to investigate. Surely Remus’s room would hold some clues as to what Patton could do to help? 

Well it soon turned out that Remus’s room held more than just clues for Patton to read. It was the whole darn answer! 

There was just… mess everywhere. Nothing on the walls, no furniture, no pictures no- no anything! And gosh if that didn’t make Patton sad. He _had_ to do something, and quick. If he worked hard and didn’t stop then he could definitely be finished before Remus came to see where he’d gone like the little duckling he’d turned out to be. 

With a click of his fingers Patton dressed in his cleaning gear, complete with rubber gloves, spotless apron and a hairtie pulling back the longest of his hair in a tiny topknot. And then he got to work.

* * *

An hour later and Patton was starting to flag. He’d managed to organise the mess into two piles labelled clothing and a vague ‘other’, but that was it. He didn’t have quite the imaginative power that Roman and Remus did to create things out of nothing, and he hadn’t been able to find any spare furniture anywhere to give to the other side. It was disappointing, to say the least. 

Still, that didn’t mean he couldn’t hoover and fold Remus’s laundry, and change the lightbulb and paint over the chips on the walls. How those had _already_ got there was beyond Patton, but he knew Remus well enough by now to know it wasn’t by choice. De had also confided recently that Remus was very houseproud when he was allowed to be, and though the second half of creativity adored a bit of dumpster diving; that was more for the treasures that could be found within than the experience of sitting in filth all day long. 

Hm. Patton stepped back and took stock. He might not have had any furniture to offer, but what he _did_ have was plenty of little touches. There were fairy lights a-plenty and at least a couple of drawings that featured Remus with the rest of them. Perfect. 

He was just walking down the corridor with an old octopus plushie he’d nearly forgotten about and two big blankets in green and purple, when he saw Remus stepping into his room. “Wait!” Patton shouted, but it was too late. 

Remus was staring around when he joined him in the room, mouth open and eyes wide. “What… what is all this?!” He asked in a hushed whisper. Patton put his armful down carefully, hoping Remus wasn’t angry about the half-done makeover. 

“It’s not finished yet, but I thought… I thought you might like things to be a bit nicer in here! It was so… well it wasn’t very homey, and I thought I could help!” 

Remus stared at him now instead, and Patton shifted his weight from foot to foot while awaiting the verdict. 

Said verdict came in the form of a very gentle hug. Remus swept him into his arms and hugged him to his chest, arms cradling rather than squeezing, and Patton got the hint. He wrapped his own arms around Remus’s middle and sent out a comforting burst of contentment that made Remus sigh and melt into him. 

“I wanted to make it better for you, but I don’t have your cool creative mojo, so I just had to work with what I could. I was wondering-”

“Yes?” Remus asked, letting him go and stepping back, not at all subtle about wiping his eyes. 

Patton smiled at him and hooked his arm around the other side’s, turning to face the room. “Well, would you like to finish it with me?” 

There was silence for a moment, and then Remus smiled down at him and said, “I’d _love_ to.” 

The plushie and blankets hopped their way onto a bed that grew before their eyes, clothes flapping like bats up to shelves as they appeared and took their place on the walls. The fairy lights they hung together, by hand, in a corner of the room that Patton designated the hang-out-corner (which didn’t make Remus cry _at all_ ) without prompting. 

Remus definitely _did_ cry when he saw the drawings though, and he cried again every time a new one was proudly handed to him. 

And Patton cried even harder when Remus first gave one _back_.


End file.
